Bielsa looks for praise to carry on all season
AFTER A week that saw Marcelo Bielsa hailed for his exciting brand of football by Hull City counterpart Nigel Adkins, Leeds United’s head coach insists the players deserve the credit and not him.
The Argentinian has made an instant impact at Elland Road since his appointment in the summer.
Leeds, with 22 points from 11 games, top the second tier on goal difference from fellow White Rose duo Middlesbrough and Sheffield United.
Adkins’s praise for Leeds in the wake of Hull’s 1-0 defeat on Tuesday night – he said Bielsa’s men would take “teams to the cleaners” this term – may not have gone down too well with his own club’s fans.
But the United chief was touched by the sentiments expressed by a rival, adding: “I thank him for what he said and especially when it comes from someone like him who knows the Championship very well.
“This increases the obligation to justify the good words said about us.
“The recipient of these words should not be me, it should be the players. But I accept them and I am grateful.
“When you reject good words you can make people think you are falsely modest. I hate false modesty because you want people to think the opposite of what you are saying.
“I only hope we will deserve the same good words at the end of this championship because we have many things to prove and to demonstrate. That has not happened so far.”
A big test awaits Leeds tomorrow as sixth-placed Brentford head to West Yorkshire at the end of a week that has seen their manager Dean Smith linked with the vacancy at Aston Villa.
“Teams like Middlesbrough are very strong in the aerial game and with the 50-50 balls,” added Bielsa, when asked about the challenges posed by a competition where teams in the top half of the table are separated by just half a dozen points.
“You are sometimes afraid of them. Then you have teams like Derby County, who have other features linked to a different offensive way of playing.
“There is a style I like a lot, it is Preston’s style and they are in the lower part of the table. But when results become the only argument opinion doesn’t matter any more.
“If you evaluate the results a team produces as an exclusive argument we would not need press conferences any more because we would have no subjects to talk about.
“Preston and Brentford have a similar style with young players and attractive football, but they have different results.”
United must tackle Dean Smith’s Bees without Barry Douglas, the left-back having suffered a hamstring injury in the win at Hull.
A scan has revealed that the damage is not as bad as first feared and the summer signing may be back to face Blackburn Rovers on the resumption of the Championship season after the international break.
Stuart Dallas, who joined Leeds from Brentford in 2015, stands by to deputise as Bielsa is forced into a first change to his starting XI in six outings.
Providing he gets the nod ahead of Tom Pearce it will be a welcome change for the Northern Ireland international whose only start for Leeds this term came in the Carabao Cup exit to Preston North End. His six appearances in the Championship have all come from the bench.
Bielsa added: “In the last few games the first offensive substitution we had was Dallas. He knows how to play deep, he makes very good crosses.
“He makes surprising movements from defensive to offensive positions. He is very skilled.
“I think Dallas is like (Ezgjan) Alioski, but on the right. Alioski’s style is offensive even if he defends very well.
“And the style of Dallas is more defensive even if he attacks very well. Both of them can play on each side.”
Bielsa may also be forced into another change due to Pontus Jansson’s partner being due to give birth.
“I don’t know yet,” said the Leeds chief when asked about the Swedish defender potentially being unavailable. “But human aspects are always more important that the football aspects.
“In the majority of cases like the one you are mentioning the players can combine both cases.”
Leeds will definitely again be without Kemar Roofe, Patrick Bamford, Gaetano Berardi and Pablo Hernandez as the club look to build on taking four points off Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday and Hull in their last two outings.
What Bielsa will not be doing, however, is unnecessarily obsessing about tomorrow’s match.
“Apart from football I don’t know how to do many things,” he added. “My life is summed up by football and family. But to understand it better it is sometimes best to watch a good movie or read a good book.
“It is better to do that than to insist on focusing on football because when you insist you make much effort but you don’t take a step forward. When you observe and watch football in an exaggerated way you don’t improve.
“Obsession is described as a virtue and we identify obsession with work. But when I look obsessively at my work, I know I am close to failure.”
Apart from football I don’t know how to do many things. Marcelo Bielsa, who says he finds it best not to become obsessive about focusing on football.
LOOKING around a barely halffull KCOM Stadium on Tuesday night, Hull City looked anything but a club capable of attracting one potential suitor never mind three.
Huge swathes of empty seats stared back at a team putting in as lifeless a display against Leeds United as the dwindling band of diehard supporters who have stuck by the club could recall.
Any noise that could be heard invariably emanated from West Riding voices, a far cry from the days of not so long ago when the visit of a hated rival such as Leeds guaranteed not only a full house but also a crackling atmosphere.
Hull lost 1-0 and few of the 9,500 or so home fans filing out into the cold night after the Tigers’ seventh defeat in 11 Championship outings will have foreseen anything but a long winter ahead.
Just 24 hours later, however, and the mood had shifted considerably thanks to news of a potential takeover. A group of Saudi investors, fronted by former chairman Paul Duffen, had bid £40m last month and due diligence was well under way. By yesterday morning The
Yorkshire Post had been informed there were actually three interested parties with sources indicating two, including Duffen’s consortium, had made concrete offers.
According to those same insiders, the process is sufficiently advanced that the Allam family – who put Hull up for sale in 2014 after failing in their attempts to re-brand as ‘Hull Tigers’ – could be gone before their eighth anniversary of taking charge comes round in mid-December.
There can be little doubt such a scenario would suit supporters as much as the owners.
But can a deal be struck? And why is Hull, a club where disillusionment reigns in the stands, so attractive a proposition that three groups are bidding to take control?
Potential and the ability to make a difference as a new owner are the key to answering the second of those burning questions.
Fans may have been alienated by how the Tigers have been run in recent years, be it the attempted name change, the lack of ticket concessions or the sale of the club’s prized assets.
But the financial picture at the KCOM is healthy with Hull posting a profit of £23.7m last season.
Following on from a £35m surplus in 2016-17 this gives any prospective new owner with genuine ambitions the sort of leeway under Football League profit and sustainability rules that is simply not available elsewhere in a division where many clubs are at or very close to the permitted £39m losses over three years.
In theory this means the Tigers’ playing budget could benefit from £60m-£70m investment without fear of breaching League regulations – a potentially game-changing amount even in a Championship awash with bigspending clubs.
Duffen’s group, who reports suggest see the area around the KCOM as prime for potential investment, is understood to be the front-runner.
His colourful past in the East Riding as the man who delivered top-flight football after a 104-year wait only then to carry the can for the financial implosion that followed makes the potential return of the 60-year-old businessman particularly intriguing.
Some fans may never forgive Duffen for the mess that the Allams had to sort out when rescuing the club in December, 2010.
But what cannot be denied is the feelgood factor that swept the city of Hull along with the Tigers for so much of his reign.
Wembley, promotion and a double in north London that saw the homes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur conquered on consecutive weekends – today marks the tenth anniversary of the latter at White Hart Lane, Geovanni’s stunning free-kick sealing a never-to-be-forgotten victory – all came on Duffen’s watch.
He was keeping an uncharacteristically low profile yesterday, but few are better at PR than Hull’s former chairman. So, if the Saudi-backed takeover does go through, expect big attempts to entice back the thousands of disaffected supporters.
This, of course, is potentially for the future. What matters now is whether a deal can be struck with any of the interested parties.
A potential barrier was cleared this week when Companies House revealed a mortgage charge from Macquarie Bank on the Tigers had been released, meaning the only outstanding loan is now the £50m – down from £88m a couple of years ago – owed to the Allams.
This makes any potential sale much more straight-forward. So, too, does the club’s insistence on paying all transfer fees inside 12 months rather than over three to four years, cutting down liabilities for a prospective new owner.
Which leaves us with the multi-million pound question as to what price will be right for the Allams to sell a club who will bank a final Premier League relegation parachute payment of around £33m this term.
There are no hints being given publicly, but the urgent need for a fresh start all round is surely lost on no one.
Duffen delivered topflight football after a 104-year wait. Richard Sutcliffe, on Paul Duffen who is fronting a group of Saudi investors.